Seven years after the previous global assessment, a new priority-setting exercise covered classical mangroves, marshes and seagrasses and expanded systems such as tidal flats, macroalgal forests and shelf sediments. The highest priority was management that supports coastal communities and integrates traditional ecological knowledge, treating legitimacy and equity as prerequisites for durable outcomes. Other priorities covered cost-effective restoration, greenhouse-gas flux accuracy, human impacts on carbon cycling, biodiversity and coastal-protection co-benefits, and remote sensing, ML and data sharing.
Key findings
- Community benefit, traditional knowledge and equity ranked highest; restoration cost, flux accuracy, human impacts, co-benefits and remote sensing, ML and data platforms were additional priorities.
Why this matters globally
The agenda shifts blue carbon beyond credit sales toward ecosystems, communities and coastal risk and can guide high-integrity funding that limits over-crediting and rights harms.
Thai researcher contribution
Milica Stankovic of Prince of Songkla University brings tropical coastal-ecosystem experience into a globally distributed agenda spanning 17 countries.
Limitations to consider
Priorities reflect participant composition and values, not measured mitigation. Expanded blue-carbon definitions retain uncertainty in permanence and additionality. Scoring, representation and finance-related conflicts are not described in the abstract.